INTERVIEW-'Morsi Meter' tries to keep Egypt's leader on toes

August 02, 2012|Reuters

* Mursi promises to achieve 64 goals in 100 days

* New website says he has achieved just one goal so far

* Site breaking new ground in Egypt

By Dina Zayed

CAIRO, Aug 2(Reuters) - When Egyptian President MohamedMursi came to power, he promised voters that he would achieve 64goals by the end of his first 100 days in power. But a littleover 30 days into his term, a new website says he has achievedjust one of those goals.

The website - the "Morsi Meter" - is inspired byPolitiFact.com's "Obameter" for U.S. President Barack Obama andis breaking new ground in a country that for decades had notangible means and little appetite to hold Hosni Mubarak and hisautocratic predecessors to account.

"We have the power. Therefore, we need to track what he isdoing. At the end of the day, he is an employee serving thestate, one whom we can hold to account," Amr Sobhy, one of thewebsite's founders, told Reuters in an interview.

"This idea helps change the concept in people's minds ofwhat the presidency is. We need to start treating the presidentas someone that we chose," the trendy 24-year-old pharmacygraduate, who has been working in the digital industry, added.

He won it by a narrow margin in a runoff against Mubarak'slast prime minister in a contest that divided Egypt, somethingthat placed him under more pressure to try and quickly win overthose displeased with his victory.

Mursi, whose surname can be transliterated from Arabicdifferently, faces serious challenges - over a year of unresthas left the economy on the rocks, the law and order system isshowing severe signs of stress, and he has inherited a utilitysystem already struggling to deliver basic services such aselectricity and water.

So far, the "Morsi Meter" says he has completed just onegoal of the 64 he set himself - raising media awareness aboutpublic cleanliness.

FOCUS ON INFORMATION

When Mursi was declared president, Sobhy and his creativepartner, 28-year old Abbas Adel, stayed up all night to designthe site. Swept up in the heat of the moment, Sobhy even misseda train he was expected to catch the next day.

The duo had previously collaborated on a project called"Zabatak" or "I caught you", right after the uprising thatousted Mubarak. It was an attempt to provide a one-stop-shop forpeople to report crime and acts of corruption they witnessed.

"It is important to provide information. This is what wethink is needed and the area where we can use our skills tocontribute," Sobhy said, adding that people need data to makeinformed judgements with so much going on in a bumpy transition.

Not everyone has access to the internet in Egypt with penetration by March at around 40 percent, though social mediasites have often been a springboard for public debates. Onlineactivists played a key role in kickstarting the uprising againstMubarak and in keeping it going.

Newspapers are following the "Morsi Meter" closely with somegetting in on the fun by asking their readers to send in theirown proposals on how best the president's 100-day plan can beachieved.

Sobhy is encouraged by this, and believes the meter willinfluence future election campaigns. In the next election, hepredicts candidates will be more careful about how they wordtheir promises since they will know that they will face anunforgiving meter of the same kind.

"This is a stage of democratic development in any society.First, you only care about casting your vote and then those youelected don't always care about you beyond the election. Whensocieties develop democratically, the voter begins to matter."